Eurasia Press & News
INGUSHETIA
A suicide bomber has inflicted the deadliest attack on the Russian republic of Ingushetia in five years. At least 20 people were killed when a truck packed with explosives rammed into the gates of the police headquarters in the city of Nazran.
Around 120 people were reported to have been injured in the blast. Attacks by Islamic insurgents in the troubled Caucasus region have increased in recent months.
The huge explosion caused extensive damage over a wide area. Nearby houses caught the full force of the detonation. One woman described getting her children together and running out of the back of their house.
Most of the casualties are understood to have been police. The bomb went off just as officers were assembling for a morning inspection at the base.
The attack has dealt a heavy blow to regional authorities and the Kremlin which backs them. In response Russian President Demitri Medvedev sacked the Ingush interior minister saying the bombing “could have been averted.”
